Saturday, March 24, 2007

I just watched a Discover program on the battle of Thermopylae, and I can't help but see the analogy between the Persian invasion of Greece and our current occupation in Iraq. While the Persians enjoyed immense numerical superiority over the Greeks, the spirited resistance caused them to give up the fight. While there are certainly arguments in favor of withdrawing from Iraq, it will hand our enemy a PR victory and while Iraq descends into civil war, they will begin plotting the next battle, whether in Africa, Afghanistan, India, or at some point in the U.S. itself.

What really rankles me about the bill that was just passed in the house however are two points 1) according to some reports $400 million of the bill are essentially bribes to win votes - pork barrel projects unrelated to the war in Representatives districts who decided to vote in favor after the bribe was added to the bill (spinach growers got $25 million, the shrimp industry received $120 million, Federal support for peanut storage, due to expire after 2006, was extended one year at a cost of $74 million, and shellfish producers got $5 million)

2) the provision to require by law a 12 month rest period before redeployment of troops. This is the type of feel-good legislation that we don't need from the Dems. The only way you could do that is to force the troops already in Iraq to stay longer so that their relief can stay in the States to meet the requirement of the law. That is hardly fair, and would be needless interference from the Congress

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About Me

Sergeant Grumpy is an SFOR, Katrina, and OIF vet. He started this blog to chronicle his deployment to Iraq, and now posts war stories along with the occasional political commentary or rant. He writes under the nom de plume of Sergeant Grumpy for OPSEC reasons, although those who know him say it is fitting.